On Tuesday, financial executives visited Capital Hill as witnesses at a Senate Banking Committee hearing. One question posed during the session had been whether the controversial high frequency trading (HFT) practice should be banned. Nebraska Republican?Sen. Mike Johanns asked it, only to receive a?resounding, “Absolutely not!” by?Kenneth Griffin, founder and chief executive of?Citadel LLC,?reported MarketWatch.

But he was not alone in this as Kevin Cronin, global head of trading at ?IVZ?concurred by telling the group that HFT?is ?not bad in and of itself.” Jeffrey Sprecher, ICE’s CEO, and?Georgetown University Prof.James Angel, a board member of DirectEdge, also agreed HFT should not be “banned.”

The statements came as the committee held the hearing to discuss market structure and?electronic trading.?

According to MarketWatch, along with the?executives not desiring an HFT ban, they did ask for market rule changes. Cronin suggested a requirement for HFT participants to “register with regulators,” which would give them access to records necessary for conducting investigations.

In addition, Sprecher had commented that “markets are too complex and that deters some investors from accessing the public markets.”

Along with the executives’ comments, on Monday?former CFTC member?Bart Chilton wrote in the New York Times piece,?No Need to Demonize High-Frequency Trading, that HFT?provides ?significant benefits to institutional and retail investors? and “highly frequent liquidity.”